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Such Poor Writing and Use of Deus Ex Machina

posted 10 years ago by BornAndBred
7 replies | jump to latest

First off, the acting in this film was phenomenal. Not just from Washington and Hawke, but also the likes of Cliff Curtis, Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray and Dre. Directing was also top notch. But the writing..........dear God! I can't believe someone with even half a brain didn't question some of the gaping plot holes and ridiculous coincidences.

I'll begin with my biggest gripe: Alonso's plan to jack Roger for his cash. So here's the scenario:

Alonso and his crew have just ripped a huge hole in Roger's kitchen to dig up his money, stealing some and leaving the rest as evidence. All good. EXCEPT their story about why they shot Roger. They were planning to say that they came to Roger's house with a warrant, bust the door down, Roger fired shots at them hitting one of the officers, Jake followed behind and blasted Roger at which point they called for emergency assistance for the officer who was shot. Assistance and back up arrived around 3mins later. SO how are they going to explain the hole in the kitchen. At what point in that story did they have enough time to shoot Roger and dig up that hole before back up arrived? Alonso: "Yeah, see it was like this. We were all getting upset at looking at our partner in agony with his gunshot wound so we decided to go into the kitchen and dig up a huge 3 minute hole before the ambulance arrived". STUPID!!!

On to my next gripe: Alonso leaving Jake alive on the rooftop. So he has just tried to blow Jake's head off with a shotgun in his girlfriend's kitchen. It's absolutely clear he intends to kill Jake. So after the rooftop fight when Jake is down and out, why does he leave him alive? He has a gun in his back pocket (that he tries to shoot Jake with when he jumps on his windscreen). Why doesn't he take the gun out and put a bullet in Jake's head before he leaves to meet the Russians?

Next gripe: Why the elaborate (deeply flawed) plan with Jake and Roger? Alonso has already demonstrated throughout the film that he doesn't play by the rules. Earlier in the film he is already shown to use a fake search warrant to enter the Sandman's house and steal his money. Roger is also a drug dealer with money in his house. Why not show up without a warrant with his crew, shoot Roger and steal his cash too? Why go through the big risk of setting up a rookie cop who might blow the whistle (PCP in his system or no PCP in his system)? I just don't get. If Alonso had shot Roger, stole the money and wiped the crime scene of any incriminating evidence.....how is that any more risky than his elaborate set up plan that he's been planning "all week"?

I could go on about Jake being in the right place in all of Los Angeles at just the right time to save Smiley's cousin, how Alonso knew he'd find enough cash in the Sandman's house (he didn't even know who he was a where he lived a few mins ago) to pay off the "Wise Men" or what Alonso's story was going to be about his partner Jake getting killed (in a thankfully deleted scene, he'd ordered Smiley to kill Jake's wife and kid too!) or exactly why a cautious cop like Jake would EVER willingly hand over both his gun AND his magazine to Mexican gangsters but I feel I've made my point.

This is lazy, unrealistic writing at its very worst.

[–] jacc1515 10 years ago

I love this movie but yes, there are some big plot holes. I can try to answer a few of your concerns.

1.As far as the short amount of time the cops/ambulance shows up and how the hole in Roger's floor got dug? Alonzo can claim Roger felt the heat was too high and was in the process of leaving town and they caught in the act of digging up his $ when the shootout occurred. So Roger dug the hole, not Alonzo and his men.

2. I agree there was no reason for Alonzo to leave Jake alive on the rooftop, but I don't think Alonzo had a gun on him at the time. If you watch again, you will see the gun Alonzo pulls on Jake while Jake is on his windshield is actually in some kind of holder located inside the car. But if Alonzo really wanted to kill Jake on the rooftop he could of just taken Jake's gun and shot him with it.

3. As far as paying off the Wiseman, maybe they didn't require a specific amount, just a substantial amount to be paid off. Yes, Alonzo didn't know how much the Sandman had, but he did know the sandman currently in jail and since drug dealers aren't going to keep their $ in the bank, there was a great chance Sandman would keep it somewhere in his house. Yes, his sock drawer would probably be a highly unlikely place to put it, but the guy is a drug dealing gangster, not a Rhodes Scholar.

4, Finally, Yes Alonzo should of just shot Roger and took his money. For that matter he should just took Roger's money and didn't even need to kill him. What was Roger going to do? Go to he police and say "hey! he stole my drug money!" I guess he would need to kill Roger if he feared some kind of violent revenge.

Anyways, it is an awesome movie and you have to get by the numerous plot holes or you won't enjoy it.

The *beep* has got to go. Go! The *beep* gots to go! -James Franco

[–] keyser_soze_smokes 10 years ago

"hey! he stole my drug money!"

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[–] twelveboar 9 years ago

The first point still has issues as Alonzo says to one of his team-mates that he 'makes sure he signs [the picks and shovels] out" from the police station. The Roger-digging-up-his-own-floor excuse still doesn't wash. It's such a huge oversight in the plot and I'm really surprised no-one flagged it: it would have been easy to have the money stashed somewhere else to avoid the time-discrepancy in their story. Guess they just really wanted to show a chainsaw being used in to cut lino. Which is a very pointless way to wreck a perfectly good chainsaw.

Still, a really enjoyable film, if a bit flawed in places.

[–] yusef-ghanima 9 years ago

such a poor mind you have.

i mostly will not be able to answer your reply, since marissa mayer hacked my email, no notification

[–] BornAndBred 9 years ago

Poor? You mean logical.

[–] The_Angry_Critic 8 years ago

Kind of a late response here, but you need to watch this with the commentary.

As far as the cousin/Smiley connection...you can take it two ways: the girl told Alonzo where she is from. So, he thought of the an idea where if decided kill Jake...he would use Smiley because he's just that evil and sick. The second: plain coincidence. The director explains how times you are talking/thinking about someone, then you bump into them. Regardless, the one and only time during the day where Jake followed his instinct...the end result was that it saved his life. Every time he didn't follow his instinct he fell deeper into the rabbit hole.

[–] Gabe1972 8 years ago

Almost all great films have plot holes, sometimes glaring. If you read into them too much, they ruin the films. Just take a film for what it is. It's not real life, it's just a film.

Time wounds all heels.